The Warriors boys lacrosse team continue to roll, extending their perfect season to 16-0 with a 10-3 beating of neighboring eighth seeded Miller Place. Possession has been the key to the Warriors success and so it was Saturday afternoon as Nick Pelella won 13 of 16 face-offs against the Panthers.
“We got off to a quick start,” said Comsewogue head coach Pete Mitchell. “We were up 4-1 at the end of one quarter and 6-1 at the half. Your goalie, ground balls and face-offs usually tell the tale of who wins a lacrosse game.
Sure enough in addition to the dominant play by Pelella in the faceoff circle the Warriors won the ground ball battle 36-19. “I think we had a bit more experience than they did,” said Mitchell. “We were able to spread things out on them pretty well.”
Comsewogue jumped out to a 4-1 first quarter lead and never looked back. Connor Russell paced the Warriors attack with three goals while Connor Duddy, Doug Foley and Ryan Brunet each added two goals apiece and Kevin Drane scored once. Comsewogue goalie Pat Bonacum recorded seven saves for the Warriors.
The top ranked Warriors will next play fifth seeded Huntington in the semifinals at home on Wednesday afternoon. Comsewogue defeated the Blue Devils 9-6 on April 8th at Huntington in one of the more closely contested games the Warriors played this year. Huntington defeated Islip 11-9 Saturday afternoon to advance to the semifinals against the Warriors.
“Huntington is a very good team and very well coached,” acknowledged Mitchell. “It should be a good game. They have a good goalie and a good face-off man.”
